A judge in Chile just ordered an investigation into the mysterious death of poet Pablo Neruda, who supposedly succumbed to prostate cancer 12 days after a Henry Kissinger-backed right wing coup installed a hideous dictator who brutalized and slaughtered his own people for years. The circumstances surrounding Neruda's death have always been in doubt. The poet, lawmaker and ambassador would have been an outspoken critic of Pinochet's regime. And media reports from the 1970s conflict with the information on his death certificate. More from CNN:

Advertisement

The investigation into his death comes as Chilean authorities probe the death of another high-profile figure in the nation's history: former Chilean President Salvador Allende.

Last week forensic experts exhumed Allende's remains as part of an investigation into whether he killed himself or was assassinated during the 1973 coup.

Official accounts ruled the leftist leader's death a suicide, saying that he shot himself — with a gun that was reportedly a gift from Fidel Castro — as Gen. Augusto Pinochet's troops closed in on the presidential palace.

But some of Allende's supporters have long doubted that account. Carroza ordered the exhumation in April as part of a massive investigation of 726 reported human rights violations during Pinochet's rule, CNN Chile reported.